Sir Orfeo is an anonymous Middle English narrative poem, retelling the story of Orpheus as a king rescuing his wife from the fairy king.
Floris and Blancheflour is the name of a popular romantic story that was told in the Middle Ages in many different vernacular languages and versions. It first appears in Europe around 1160 in "aristocratic" French. Roughly between the period 1200 and 1350 it was one of the most popular of all the romantic plots.
"Iron John" is a German fairy tale found in the collections of the Brothers Grimm, tale number 136, about a wild iron-skinned man and a prince. The original German title is Eisenhans, a compound of Eisen "iron" and Hans. It represents Aarne–Thompson type 502, "The wild man as a helper".
Sir Aldingar is Child ballad 59. Francis James Child collected three variants, two fragmentary, in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. All three recount the tale where a rebuffed Sir Aldingar slanders his mistress, Queen Eleanor, and a miraculous champion saves her.
Apollonius of Tyre is the subject of an ancient short novella, popular in the Middle Ages. Existing in numerous forms in many languages, the text is thought to be translated from an ancient Greek manuscript, now lost.
"Le Fresne" is one of the Lais of Marie de France. It was likely written in the late 12th century. Marie claims it to be a Breton lai, an example of Anglo-Norman literature.
The Vitae duorum Offarum "The lives of the two Offas" is a literary history written in the mid-thirteenth century, apparently by the St Albans monk Matthew Paris.; however, the most recent editor and translator of the work rejects this attribution and argues for an earlier date, in the late twelfth century. The earliest editor, William Wats, argues that the texts are older than Matthew's day but were revised by him; he bases this view on stylistic elements, such as the inclusion in the first Vita of a quotation from Lucan which also appears repeatedly in Matthew's Chronica maiora.
Emaré is a Middle English Breton lai, a form of Mediaeval romance poem, told in 1035 lines. The author of Emaré is unknown and it exists in only one manuscript, Cotton Caligula A. ii, which contains ten metrical narratives. Emaré seems to date from the late fourteenth century, possibly written in the North East Midlands. The iambic pattern is rather rough.
The Anglo-Norman romance Ipomedon by Hue de Rotelande, composed near Hereford around 1180, survives in three separate Middle English versions, a long poem Ipomadon composed in tail-rhyme verse, possibly in the last decade of the fourteenth century, a shorter poem The Lyfe of Ipomydon, dating to the fifteenth century and a prose version, Ipomedon, also of the fifteenth century. In each case, the story is taken independently from the Anglo-Norman romance Ipomedon, written in Old French by Hue de Rotelande "not long after 1180", possibly in Herefordshire, England. It is included in a list of the popular English romances by Richard Hyrde in the 1520s.
Generides or Generydes is an English verse romance, originating in the English Midlands and dated to the end of the 14th century. It survives in two different lengthy forms. The hero Generides is born as an illegitimate son of the King of India, and after adventures marries a princess of Persia and becomes ruler of both India and Persia.
Le Bone Florence of Rome is a medieval English chivalric romance. Featuring the innocent persecuted heroine, it is subcategorized into the Crescentia cycle of romances because of two common traits: the heroine is accused by her brother-in-law after an attempted seduction, and the story ends with her fame as a healer bringing all her persecutors to her.
The Erl of Toulouse is a medieval English chivalric romance centered on an innocent persecuted wife. It is supposed to be a translated lai, but the original lai is lost. It is thought to date from the late 14th century, and survives in four manuscripts of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Erl of Toulouse is written in a north-east Midland dialect of Middle English.
The King of Tars is a medieval English chivalric romance, an amplified version of the oldest variant found in the Reimchronik, which is found in three manuscripts including the Auchinleck manuscript. It dates from c. 1330, or perhaps earlier. It contains many specific religious phrases, and is consistently religious in intent. In addition, The King of Tars exhibits attributes of other genres typical of the medieval period, including hagiography, political drama, and miracle tale.
Amadas, or Sir Amadace is a medieval English chivalric romance, one of the rare ones for which there is neither a known nor a conjectured French original, like Sir Eglamour of Artois. The hero shares a name but no more with the romance Amadas et Idoine.
Sir Cleges is a medieval English verse chivalric romance written in tail-rhyme stanzas in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. It is clearly a minstrel tale, praising giving gifts to minstrels, and punishing the servants who might make it impossible for a minstrel in a noble household. Corrupt officials are central to it.
Crescentia is an Early Middle High German chivalric romance, written in Kaiserchronik about 1150. Other versions appeared in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in prose and verse.
Athelston is an anonymous Middle English verse romance in 812 lines, dating from the mid or late 14th century. Modern scholars often classify it as a "Matter of England" romance, because it deals entirely with English settings and characters. It is mainly written in twelve-line stanzas rhyming AABCCBDDBEEB, though the poet occasionally varies his meter with stanzas of eight, six, or four lines. The poem survives in only one manuscript, the early 15th century Gonville and Caius MS 175, which also includes the romances Richard Coer de Lyon, Sir Isumbras and Beves of Hamtoun. It has no title there. Athelston was first printed in 1829, when C. H. Hartshorne included it in his Ancient Metrical Tales.
